diff --git a/tests/integration/defs/conftest.py b/tests/integration/defs/conftest.py
index f2d9e83a95..777f22db04 100644
--- a/tests/integration/defs/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/integration/defs/conftest.py
@@ -2232,6 +2232,10 @@ def pytest_configure(config):
         periodic_interval = config.getoption("--periodic-interval")
         periodic_batch_size = config.getoption("--periodic-batch-size")
 
+        # Create output directory early (like --junitxml does) to avoid conflicts with other plugins
+        # that may need to write to the same directory (e.g., pytest-split)
+        os.makedirs(output_dir, exist_ok=True)
+
         # Create the reporter with logger
         xmlpath = os.path.join(output_dir, "results.xml")
         reporter = PeriodicJUnitXML(